During their absence, I had been applying mosquitoes to yellow fever patients at "Las Animas" Hospital, keeping them in my laboratory, as it was done at the beginning of the investigation; the season being more advanced, now and then a cold "norther" would blow and my insects suffered very much thereby, so that I had the greatest trouble in preventing their untimely death: to this may be added the difficulty met in feeding them blood, for now that I knew their sting was dangerous, unto death perhaps, I could not allow any indiscriminate biting, but had to select for the purpose individuals who had suffered an attack of the disease and were therefore immune.
The necessity for an experimental camp became more imperative as time passed, not only where proper quarantine and isolation could be established, but also where the insects intended for the inoculations might receive better care. This entailed considerable expense.
Fortunately for us, the military governor of the island at that time, Brigadier General Leonard Wood, was a man who had received a thorough medical training; broad and clear-minded, he fully appreciated the importance of what might be the outcome of our researches. We found in him the moral support which we so much needed and, further, he promptly placed at the disposal of the board sufficient funds with which to carry on the experiments to the end. I firmly believe that had other been the circumstances, had a more military and less scientific man been at the head of the government, the investigation would have terminated there and then, and many years would have passed, with hundreds of lives uselessly sacrificed, before we could have attained our present remarkable sanitary triumphs.
We immediately set about choosing a location for our camp. I had already looked over the ground, preferring the proximity of Camp Columbia, from where supplies could be easily obtained and because the Military Hospital there could be used for treating the cases that we intended to produce; I was therefore favorably impressed with the seclusion offered by a spot situated a short distance from the main road, in a farm, named San Jose, belonging to my friend Dr. Ignacio Rojas, of Havana. Major Reed decided upon this place after looking at many others in the neighborhood, so that on the twentieth of November we inaugurated our camp, which we named Camp Lazear, in honor to the memory of our dead colleague, consisting then of seven army tents, guarded by a military garrison, composed of men who had been carefully selected by virtue of their previous good record and their interest in the work to be undertaken.
Feeling that we had proved, to ourselves at least, the agency of the mosquito in yellow fever, it became our duty to disprove the theory, until then held as a certainty by many authorities, to the effect that the soiled bedding and clothing, the secretions and excreta of patients, were infectious and in some way carried the germ of the disease. We therefore designed a small wooden building, to be erected a short distance from the tense, with a capacity of 2,800 cubic feet. The walls and ceiling were absolutely tight, the windows and vestibuled door screened and all precautions taken to prevent the entrance of insects.
Into this, called the "infected clothing building," three beds and a stove, to maintain a high tropical temperature, were introduced; also mattresses and pillows, underwear, pajamas, towels, sheets, blankets, etc., soiled with blood and discharges from yellow fever cases: these articles were put on the beds, hung about the room and packed in a trunk and two boxes placed there for the purpose.
The building was finished and equipped on November 30. That Friday evening, Dr. Robert P. Cook, U. S. Army, with two other American volunteers, entered it and prepared to pass the night: they had instructions to unpack the boxes and trunk, to handle and shake the clothing and in every way to attempt to disseminate the yellow fever poison, in case it was contained in the various pieces. We watched the proceedings from the outside, through one of the windows. The foul conditions which developed upon opening the trunk were of such a character that the three men were seen to suddenly rush out of the building into the fresh air; one of them was so upset that his stomach rebelled; yet, after a few minutes, with a courage and determination worthy only of such a cause, they went back into the building and passed a more or less sleepless night, in the midst of indescribable filth and overwhelming stench.
For twenty consecutive nights these men went through the same performance; during the day they remained together, occupying a tent near their sleeping quarters. Dr. Cook, by voluntarily undergoing such a test, without remuneration whatsoever, proved his faith in the mosquito theory; his demonstration of the harmless character of so-called infected clothing, in yellow fever, has been of the greatest importance. The other six men (two of them with Dr. Cook) who were subjected to this test, received each a donation of one hundred dollars for his services.
Many days even before the establishment of the experimental camp, the board had heard that several men who knew of our work were willing to submit to the inoculations and thus aid in clearing up the mystery of yellow fever. Two of these require special mention, John R. Kissinger, a private in the Hospital Corps of the Army, was the first to offer himself most altruistically, for, as he expressed it, his offer was made without any desire for pecuniary or other consideration and solely "in the interest of humanity and the cause of science," the other, J. J. Moran, a civilian employee, also stipulated as a condition that he was to receive no pay for his services. Both these men, in due time, suffered from yellow fever and until very recently had never obtained any reward for the great risk which they ran so voluntarily and praiseworthily.
Kissinger, who after several years' service in the army became disabled, is receiving a pension from the government; Moran, I hope, is still well and in the employ of the Isthmian Canal Commission, justly enjoying the friendship and confidence of his superior officers. The names of Kissinger and Moran should figure upon the roll of honor of the U. S. Army.